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In this video from Mornings at Channel 9, Yvette Vignando on the parenting panel with Dannielle Miller and Tracey Spicer talking about research lead by Dr David Hawes from the University of Sydney about the kind of warm and positive parenting that can help children with what is known as "callous and unemotional" (CU) traits. Also discussed: parents who are in a dispute over their child and a father has been ordered to stop weighing his daughter as it affects her self esteem. Read full article

Tonight I read some extracts from a UK School Health Education Unit report called “Young People Into 2011”. The headlines about the report tell us that about one third of primary school girls are missing their meals and are unhappy with their weight. I’m only a little surprised because there’s so much media coverage of teenage girls who are unhappy with their body image. Read full article

It's difficult to comment on other people's personal circumstances without full knowledge of their backgrounds, values and capacities to cope. But what most people will agree on is that parenting while you are a teenager is always going to be a challenge. It's a big call learning how to parent well when you still need parenting yourself. This story about Soya Keaveny who came to the attention of the media at 12 when she was a bikini model and told journalists she was exercising two hours every day and doing 200 push ups to maintain a skinny look. Read full article

There have been a few posts on here lately around the issue of children and body image. And now the whole beauty pageant fiasco is coming to Australia. I do not like children's beauty pageants (not one bit). Here's a light-hearted but powerful video spoof that covers many of the issues, starring Tom Hanks and his daughter. Another reason to love Tom Hanks. Read full article

When baby boys are born, they usually look close to perfect - their parents gaze at them with the rose-coloured glasses that are issued to all new mums and dads. And apart from snotty noses, muddy knees and bruised shins, those little boys remain cherub-like in the eyes of their parents until their early teen years. By then, teenage boys are starting to define and compare themselves with others and will be making efforts to show how different they are from their doting parents. Enter the influence of the media, the movies, peers and reality television, and all of a sudden a teenage boy notices that his muscles are not as bulked up as his favourite television show character, and his hair is not as straight and cool as the popular boys in his year. Read full article

Boys are under increasing pressure to look good. How is this impacting on boys' healthy body image? Yvette Vignando appears on The Morning Show Channel 7 and discusses briefly what parents can do to promote a healthy body image in their teenage sons and protect them from developing eating disorders. Also appearing, Danni Rowlands from the Butterfly Foundation and Loveena Guilford from Styed with Love. Read full article